New Vegas interviews

Is the interface identical for all versions or has it been customized to reflect the system it's played on and the controllers it's played with? E.g. the pc version had a variety of mods customizing the UI, Darnified UI being one of the more popular ones, which changed font sizes, colors, placement of infographics to make use of the better resolution most PCs offer etc.

We investigated offering an "High Def" user interface but unfortunately found that while it is relatively easy to modify existing fonts (as Darnified's UI does), expanding the overall font library to allow for an SD/HD toggle between the two was more complicated.

What was the decision behind the definitive ending? There was a lot of moaning and arguing about Fallout 3 having a hard ending and in the end we got a DLC that allowed for an open ending. Don't you expect the same to happen?

Sure, but I also think that would happen if we allowed players to play past the end of the game but didn't show the impact of their actions on the world. There is a lot of reactivity to your actions at the end of the game and we give the player a very clear warning when they are approaching the main plot's conclusion.

We felt that having an endgame denouement with a large number of far-reaching effects was too important to either allow the player to continue playing in a world that didn't react to any of those things or make the endgame states minimalistic. There is a lot of reactivity to your actions at the end of the game and we give the player a very clear warning when they are approaching the main plot's conclusion.

Was there a lot of "research" trips to Las Vegas and if so what did you learn in the trips that was applied to the game?

Josh (our Project Director) actually hopped on his motorcycle and drove off into the desert for a couple of weeks to take pictures and get an idea of how he wanted our Mojave Wasteland to look and feel. Some of us also took "research" trips to the Strip to "study" the, uh, indigenous peoples and local culture. Strictly academic stuff, you understand.

Less exciting but more useful was the time we spent digesting media -- photos of Google architecture, post-apocalyptic and rat-pack-era films and music, which came with reduced risk of alcohol poisoning or scuffles with the local law enforcement.

Some game sequels just remake the original game in a new location. How much effort was made to make Fallout: New Vegas not fall into that trap?

Quite a bit - we definitely had visions for what we wanted the game to be. We also understood that because we were reusing Fallout 3 tech, we would have to take extra care to make our game stand out. It wasn't just going to be about how the game looked, we needed to make the overall experience different through story, characters, dialog, and general atmosphere, as well as improving and building upon the gameplay.